13th March, 2018
The Kogi Government says its N2 billion newly built advanced medical diagnostic and imaging centre in Lokoja will commence operation before end of April.
The state Commissioner for Health, Mr Saka Haruna, told newsmen on Tuesday in Lokoja that the centre was fitted with cutting edge medical equipment such as CT Scan, MRI and digital mamography.
“With its completion, it will no longer be necessary for residents to travel out of the state to seek advance medical investigation,’’ he said.
Haruna said that the state recorded 29 cases of suspected Lassa fever recently, saying that nine cases were confirmed while six persons were treated and discharged.
However, he said that three persons lost their lives while another patient was still on admission.
The commissioner said that the state had designated a five-bedroom building at the Specialist Hospital in Lokoja as an isolation centre for the treatment of Lassa fever patients and other epidemic diseases.
On the ongoing strike by public medical doctors in the state, Haruna said that government was still negotiating with them on the need to call off the strike.
He added that government was taking steps on how to meet the doctors’ demands and dismissed speculations that youth corps doctors were being mobilised to replace them.
According to him, the state government was sponsoring the treatment of 28 indigenes with life threatening medical issues of stroke, congestive heart failure, malignant diseases and spinal cord injury abroad.
“One of the most fascinating of these was the successful separation of conjoined twins,” the commissioner said.
He stated that the administration of Gov. Yahaya Bello had also conducted a comprehensive upgrade of five zonal hospitals and provided them with N550 million worth of state of the art medical equipment, drugs and furniture.